1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to configuring computers.
2. Related Art
The deployment of large numbers of computers typically requires significant effort to configure all of the computers to be suitable for the service that each is intended to provide. For example, a large organization seeking to deploy 1000 or more new computers for use in its operation will typically require that the computers be configured before being deployed in the field. Frequently, this task falls upon the computer provider, systems integrator or other vendor.
Prior approaches to configuring relatively large numbers of computers, e.g., 100, 1000 or more computers, required an operator to determine each computer's current configuration state and initiate interaction of the computer with an appropriate resource for each step in the configuration process. This process, when performed for 1000 or more computers, was known to take 3-6 or more months to complete.